


if the shoe fits

by Siriusstuff



Series: Teodor Claudius Talan Stilinski-Hale [21]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Ficlet, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Married Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Parenthood, Sheriff Stilinski's Name is John
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 00:39:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14249319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siriusstuff/pseuds/Siriusstuff
Summary: Stiles learns some things, most of them about his growing boy.





	if the shoe fits

**Author's Note:**

> I am so grateful to everyone who's left kudos and comments on this series. Lately there's been an uptick in the comments I receive, all of them very affirming and inspiring as well. I love you folks!
> 
> With my thanks here's a new installment in the life of Teo and his dads. Big Poppa Sheriff shows up too.

Sitting in the big chair Teo took one look at the sneaker in his papa’s hand and pulled his legs out of the way.

“Come on, Tay. Let’s get your shoes on so we can go see Big Poppa.”

Mention of visiting Big Poppa usually worked like a magical happiness charm on Teo. On this day, though, what Stiles heard was, “No.”

He considered himself one lucky father, with next to nothing to contribute to tales of the “terrible twos”—this despite having a _werewolf_ toddler who’d already figured out how to climb out of his crib, pop a tiny claw to remove a wet diaper, and could reposition some of the furniture by himself.

“Teo, why not?”

“No shooce.”

Stiles had no memory of Derek ever losing patience with their child. Stiles figured it was because Derek could smell emotions Teo still lacked powers of speech to express. Or maybe it was the pack bond, which Stiles suspected might be a psychic connection. There was something supernatural to it, he was sure.

Didn’t mean his own above-average human smarts and sharper than 20/20 insight into people and situations couldn’t compete in resolving unexpected events in child-rearing.

He ran a finger inside the sneaker, whacked it against his leg to loosen anything that didn’t belong in there. Nothing.

He held it up before Teo and shook it, asking, “No?”

“No,” Teo repeated.

“You want to see Big Poppa today?”

Teo nodded a definite _yes_.

“But you don’t want to wear your shoes.”

“No.”

“I have to say, mister, you’re being very disagreeable.”

Stiles’s tone was amused, but the strange big word did not sound very nice to Teo.

“ _No_ ,” he insisted.

With a slight giggle, “No, you’re _not_ being disagreeable? You disagree that you’re being disagreeable.”

Teo could hear his papa was laughing, a little bit, but there was also a smell in his nose that made him feel bad.

He pouted, squeezed his eyes closed and would have cried except he heard Daddy’s footsteps coming.

“What’s going on here?”

Daddy smelled like bath time.

“Nothing,” Stiles answered. “I’m having a philosophical discussion with our son.”

Brows furrowing, his fingers already in Teo’s hair, scratching soothingly, “You’re both agitated,” Derek said.

“ _I’m_ —what? _Teo’s_ agitated?”

“Very.”

Stiles felt as if he’d suddenly sobered up from a slight buzz. “He doesn’t want to wear his shoes,” he explained, which was everything he knew.

Derek took the sneaker from Stiles, studied it as if he held a mystifying artifact unearthed at an archaeological dig. He sniffed its interior.

Gently he felt Teo’s foot, Teo watching to make sure the shoe didn’t get anywhere near it.

“They’re too small,” Derek declared.

Stiles eyes nearly bulged.

“ _What?—_ You can tell _that_ by _smell?”_

Probably a more useful question to answer would be why life with werewolves still harbored surprises for Stiles.

“I can smell the stress hormones scenting his sneakers. They must’ve been hurting him.”

Now Stiles felt _awful_ , but offered up one last defense against any on-coming attack of guilt.

“Derek, I just bought him these sneakers, _literally_ two weeks ago.”

Derek had already lifted Teo in one arm. He curled the other around Stiles, pulled him close and kissed his forehead.

“Maybe this is the start of a growth spurt. We get a lot of them sometimes.”

_We_ being werewolves, Stiles knew, while the fleeting image of Teo becoming giant saddened him.

“Could be why he’s been _disagreeable_ lately too.”

Stiles ignored the shot because he remembered his own growing-pains.

He reached for one of Teo’s feet, caressing it like a precious object.

“I’m so sorry, baby boy. Papa didn’t know your shoes hurt you.”

Derek hugged him more firmly and Stiles further compressed their triple-embrace so he could cover Teo’s face in kisses.

“Daddy’s gonna get dressed and then we’ll go buy you nice new shoes that feel good, OK, Tay? Then we’ll go visit Big Poppa and have lunch with him. OK?”

Teo was happy with all of that. “OK.”

 

Daddy carried Teo into the place with all the shoes on the walls and everywhere he looked.

It was very stinky in there so he kept scenting Daddy.

Papa talked to one person and then another person and then _another_ person began touching Teo’s feet.

The sales clerk attending to their shoe-shopping was pleasant and obviously well trained in how to measure a child’s foot and keep the procedure from being scary.

Stiles approved of her manners. Nonetheless Derek eyeballed her every move the way he’d scrutinize a potential assassin’s.

Stiles was used to that; was also aware most humans never realized how minutely they were observed by their lycanthrope fellow citizens. Derek rarely growled at strangers anymore, and that helped a lot as well.

Teo liked best when he got to pick out his new shoes’ color. He picked red.

Papa kind of yelled at Daddy to let go Teo’s hand so he could walk in his new shoes by himself. The shoes didn’t hurt, even when Papa said he could jump up and down in them or when he ran back into Daddy’s arms, which was also fun.

Stiles resisted the urge to tease his husband for his hyper-vigilance and zealous protectiveness of their little one. Of course he was grateful for it too, and as much its beneficiary as Teo. They could never afford bodyguards even half as good as Derek.

Stiles also let slide his noting how, after the sales clerk playfully shook Teo’s hand when they departed the store, Derek took Teo’s entire hand in his, replacing the non-pack scent with his own as they returned to the car.

He was tempted to remind Derek they might be in the presence of actual criminals in police custody once they got to the sheriff station—but Stiles really wanted his dad to have some time with Teo, so he kept his mouth shut, lest Derek bustle them back to the safety of their home and lair.

Sheriff John was talking on the phone when the trio entered his office, though he quickly ended the call at the sight of them. There followed the relaying of the morning’s entire too-tight shoe story, then Teo’s showing how he could jump up and down in his new shoes. He was very good at that and everybody clapped and said “yay!” including Teo.

Finally Big Poppa held him in his arms where Teo could scent-mark him and wriggle in Big Poppa’s scent, which he missed so much.

“You look sharp in your new kicks there, kiddo,” the Sheriff said.

“Yook shop,” Teo echoed in agreement.

“Yes you do!” Turning to the matter of lunch, “Rodriguez keeps telling me about this sandwich shop, just opened on Hillman,” John suggested to son and son-in-law, knowing he was going way too far when he added, “Says they have a great steak _torta_.”

“Yeah,” Stiles replied, “I hear there’s a great new all salads, all the time, Salads R Us on Salad Street.”

Derek opted not to get in the middle of this particular never-ending Stilinski debacle.

“Why don’t we let Teo decide,” was John’s solution. “What would you like for lunch, son?” he asked, then stage whispered, “Say ‘bacon cheese burger deluxe with fries.’”

“Ha! Tell you what, _Dad_ ,” Stiles fired back. “If he says it, you can have it!”

John repeated his meal preference to his grandson. Teo knew the word “bacon,” which he pronounced perfectly. “Cheece buuhg,” was new but he could say that too. The rest were too many words and Teo ignored them.

But Big Poppa was very happy now.

“He said ‘bacon cheeseburger,’ so I get that!” John exulted.

Stiles regarded Teo in wonderment, then turned to Derek with the same expression.

Derek shrugged. “Not just his feet are growing. His mind is growing too.—You _are_ happy about that, aren’t you?”

Stiles would’ve been happier if his kid’s developing vocabulary hadn’t resulted in his father’s getting his unhealthy if undeniably delicious meal choice.

Deciding to walk to the nearest diner, they stopped at the gently-used clothing donation bin outside the station entrance where Stiles handed Teo his old shoes to drop in. Teo needed to look at them first because they’d been tied together by the laces, something he’d never seen before.

After Papa and Daddy told him now another boy, smaller than Teo, could wear his old shoes and they would feel good on his feet Teo let the shoes dangle over the bin’s opening before he released them.

It was a very exciting act.

Then finally Teo was allowed to walk, on the sidewalk, Daddy holding one hand, Papa the other, and Big Poppa walking behind so that Teo had to lean way over backwards to see him.

His papa and daddy lifted him up and swung him between themselves, which was more fun than anything ever. And when he touched the ground again he kicked out his feet with each step he took, so he could look at his new shoes that didn’t hurt and were so red red red, the color Teo loved.

**Author's Note:**

> In my part of the US, rubber-soled, canvas-covered informal footwear (and I have no idea if those are still the materials used) are called _sneakers_. I have family in the south who call them _tennis shoes_ and I've discovered the latter name is used throughout most of the rest of the country. They're also called _kicks, gym shoes, trainers,_ really, lots of names in this and other countries. I used _sneakers_ a few times, but mostly _shoes._ I just could not imagine the sheriff saying "tennis shoes" so I wrote him saying "kicks."


End file.
